


pull me up (and never let me drown)

by louvregood



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Best Friends, College AU, F/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mild Language, piper has no shame and leo is slightly scandalized, there are boobs but briefly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-09
Updated: 2020-05-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:42:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24086071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/louvregood/pseuds/louvregood
Summary: All Piper wants to do is pass this final. Some chai tea would be nice too. Leo's got her back.
Relationships: Piper McLean/Leo Valdez
Comments: 10
Kudos: 38





	pull me up (and never let me drown)

**Author's Note:**

> C stands for college, chai-tea, and crying. I make Piper cry in every other fic I write. Piper, sweetie, I am so sorry.
> 
> I wrote this during fall semester finals and never finished. Figured I would just get back around to it when spring semester finals happened, and, uh. . .yeah. Spring semester did a complete one-eighty. But I finally got around to this! Hope you enjoy :)
> 
> Title is from "Friends" by The Carters

Whenever Piper’s on the edge of a breakdown, she likes to look at pictures of baby monkeys. There’s something about their cute, mischievous little faces that releases gamma amino butyric acid into her brain, curbing her anxiety and calming her down significantly.

However, the baby monkeys in Google images were _not_ calming her down right now, she cannot stop thinking in psych terminology (she had her psych final earlier today), and she’s absolutely, without a doubt, going to fail her pre-calculous final tomorrow. The final that she has to pass in order to pass the class.

She hates it here.

Five straight hours of reviewing notes and doing practice problems, and she’s still as hopeless as when she sat down. Her butt has gone completely numb. Her neck and her back are done for as well. Mitchell would have her ass for not taking stretch breaks.

It’s 2 am now, which means her final is in approximately eight hours. Piper knows she’s looking at an all-nighter. If she heads to bed now, she’ll bomb that test.

Fuck this school, fuck this class, and fuck this expensive ass calculator that she doesn’t know how to use. God, she just wants this to be _over._ And to sleep. And a chai tea. She really wants a chai tea.

The screen of her phone goes dark, and instead of a baby monkey she comes face to face with her own reflection of utter exhaustion and despair. She sighs. She ought to get back to work anyway.

She stares sorrowfully down at her notes and finds that she can’t. She physically Cannot Do This.

She thinks about calling Annabeth, who is great at math and also somehow never sleeps. She’s become somewhat of an academic confidant for Piper—she constantly calls her for help on homework or just to rant about school for an hour or two.

As she’s picking up her phone she remembers that Annabeth is pulling an all-nighter for a 10 page paper she waited last minute to start on. She told Piper yesterday she was making Percy confiscate her phone so she wouldn’t get distracted.

“Shit,” she curses, frantically unlocking her phone anyway. “ _Shit_.”

She opens up the messaging app and taps on the second conversation, immediately spamming Leo with texts.

piper 2:13 a.m.

**_I’m dropping out_ **

**_I’ve decided_ **

**_college isn’t for me_ **

**_gonna sell a kidney that should keep me going for a few months right_ **

Piper doesn’t even get the chance to lock her phone before she sees the grey dots appear. Of course he’s awake. He’s finished with all of his finals and, like Annabeth, never sleeps.

****valdizzle 2:13 a.m.

**_stfu_ **

**_wait don’t you have a final tomorrow??_ **

piper 2:13 a.m.

**_yea_ **

valdizzle 2:14 a.m.

**_WHY are you up_ **

piper 2:14 a.m.

**_mind ur business_ **

**_just know i’m dropping out_ **

valdizzle 2:14 a.m.

**_okay i’ll entertain your dramatic ass for a minute or two_ **

**_why are you dropping out_ **

piper 2:15 a.m.

**_because i’m a dumbass who’s going to fail my pre-calculous final tmrw_ **

**_do you know any black markets i could sell my kidney on_ **

**_wait do you know if you technically need ur stomach to live_ **

**_WAIT i can sell my plasma too?? oh i’m going to be fucking rich_ **

valdizzle 2:19 a.m.

**_you can’t sell your plasma dumbass you’re iron deficient_ **

piper 2:21 a.m.

**_OH MY GOD I CAN SELL MY EGGS??? say no more_ **

valdizzle 2:21 a.m.

**_sell your WHAT_ **

**_piper…go to bed…i’m begging._ **

piper 2:22 a.m.

**_i can’t go to bed i have to study for my final :(_ **

**_like seriously i cannot fail i have to pass in order to pass the class and i’m absolutely terrible at this shit i barely have a C in class rn_ **

**_i’m gonna cry_ **

valdizzle 2:24 a.m.

**_you’re not gonna fail you absolute payasa_ **

**_baby_monkey.jpeg_ **

**_look_ **

Piper smiles dryly. At least he tried.

piper 2:24 a.m.

**_it’s too late i’m already crying_ **

She’s typing another message when her phone rings with an incoming video call. Leo. She cringes at how she looks in the front camera and begrudgingly presses accept. 

The first thing she sees is the disheveled mop of curls that sits atop his head. Her first instinct is to make fun of him, ask if he owns a hair brush or something, but she’s no sight for sore eyes right now either.

“You’re not actually crying, right? I can never tell if you’re actually upset over text.” Leo presses his nose up against his screen, scanning Piper’s face for any kind of distress. 

Piper sighs. “No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Mhm.”

“Okay,” he says. He goes quiet for a second before asking. “Do you really think you’re gonna fail?”

Piper can’t help the way her voice breaks when she says, “Yeah.”

“ _Piper._ ”

Piper sniffs and wipes at the tears leaking out of eyes. That didn’t take long.

“I don’t know,” she chokes. “I’m just frustrated. And tired. And I want a chai tea really bad.”

“It won’t be as bad as you think, Pipes.”

Piper knows Leo means well, but she doesn’t want to hear it from the kid who got a perfect math score on his SAT. 

“I’m hanging up, I still need to memorize the unit circle,” she says bitterly.

Leo gives her a look. That _I can see right through you and you’re doing that thing where you avoid talking about your problems_ look.

He doesn’t call her out. “Whatever.” He sticks his tongue out at her. Piper rolls her eyes, struggling to hold back a grin. 

“Talk to you tomorrow.”

“Remember,” he says. “You’re doing amazing sweetie!”

“Haha, but I’m _not_. Um, love you. Mwah!”

“Did you just try to outdo my Kris Jenner meme with a Nicki Minaj meme? You really wanna go there right now?”

“No. _Goodbye,_ Leo.”

“Love you.”

“Love you too.”

-

The numbers and graphs in Piper’s notes are starting to swim.

She’s not going to be able to do this. Five minutes ago she closed her eyes to blink and she woke up from a bizarre dream about a baby monkey peeing all over her pre-calc notebook. She’s getting nowhere being exhausted like this. She thinks she’ll pack up, set her alarm for 9 am (which was in _six hours_ ) and then cry herself to sleep. Yeah, that sounds good.

Just as she’s shoving her stupid, _expensive_ ass calculator into her backpack for tomorrow, she hears a light knocking at her door.

She squints at it, and for a moment she wonders if her exhaustion is making her hallucinate. Her roommate Lacy said she was spending the night at her sorority house, which is why Piper was up late studying in the solitary comfort of her dorm and not a freezing study room in the library right now.

Slowly, she stands up and tip toes over to the door. She can’t describe the sound her throat makes when she looks through the peep hole to see who it is.

She unlocks the door and yanks it open. “Um. _Hello?_ What the fuck?”

Leo shushes her and pushes past her into the dorm room. “Shut up. It’s past quiet hours and I’m not supposed to be here.”

“I know that, you _lunatic_. What are you doing here?”

He grins sheepishly, shrugging off his jean-jacket—actually, that’s Piper’s jean-jacket. _That’s_ where that went.

“I was on campus.”

“No you _weren’t._ You were in your apartment an hour ago! When did you leave? How did you get in the building? Who let you in?”

“Don’t worry about it, jeez! Here,” he says, shoving a to-go cup she hadn’t realized he was holding in her direction. 

Her jaw drops open slightly. She takes the cup from his hands and takes a sip. Chai-tea. Suddenly she feels like crying all over again, but this time out of relief.

“You got me a chai-tea?”

“Yeah, aren’t I great?” He hops up onto Pipers bed, and she doesn’t even have the heart to scold him for sitting in it with his jeans on. “Coffee place on campus is open twenty-four hours during finals. Drink it before it gets cold.”

She takes a huge gulp of her drink. “Any other hopeless, pathetic students having emotional breakdowns in there?”

Leo grimaces. “Oh yeah, it was _ugly_.”

Piper groans. “That’s actually really sad. Do professors feel good knowing that students are going to fail their exams?”

“ _You’re not going to fail._ ” Leo chides, giving her a stern look. Piper raises her eyebrows and silently takes a sip of her tea.

Leo holds out his hand. “I’m confiscating your tea. Give it to me.”

Piper gasps, clutching the warm cup to her chest. “No!”

“Then stop saying you’re going to fail!”

“But I am! Be proud of me, I’ve gone through all the stages of grief in one night and now I’ve finally reached acceptance.”

“ _No_ , you’re giving up on yourself. You’re not allowed to do that.”

Piper pouts, thinking about how she’d be in bed weeping right now if Leo hadn’t paid a surprise visit. She had been ready to give up, so what?

“Who are you, my dad?” she says petulantly.

Leo’s face is as serious as stone. Piper deflates, and she’s overcome with an onslaught of emotion. She turns away slightly as tears burn in the back of her eyes.

Leo sighs. He hops down from her bed, crosses the short amount of space between the two of them, and takes the cooling cup of tea from Piper’s hand. Piper doesn’t protest as she watches him place it on her desk.

He turns to face her. “Look at me,” he says, and Piper’s stomach flips. She kind of hates being this vulnerable.

Reluctantly, she looks up from beneath her lashes. Leo sighs, lifts a hand to Piper’s shoulder and squeezes gently.

“You’re not going to fail,” he repeats. “ _I_ will help you study.”

Piper immediately frowns, the refusal ready on her tongue. “Leo, no—“

“Aht!” He cuts her off, glaring at her. Piper’s mouth snaps shut. “I drove all the way over here at this ungodly hour to bring you chai tea and moral support because I _hate_ it when you cry, and this is how you repay me? By being self-deprecating, and then trying to refuse my help?”

Piper makes a noise of protest. “But—!”

“No buts!” He interrupts. He grabs her tea from the desk and thrusts the cup in her direction. “Now, you’re going to drink your tea, I’m going to help you study, you’re going to pass your final tomorrow, _y ya_.”

Piper knows she made a joke about him acting like her dad earlier, but wow.

“It’s 3 am,” she whines.

Leo shrugs. “Better get crackin’ then.” He points at her bed. “I suggest you get comfortable.”

Piper sits at the foot of her bed, and Leo at her desk. He reviews her notes with her, quizzes her on the different formulas, and teaches her how to use her expensive calculator the right way.

“You took this class a couple semesters back, right?” Piper asks. Leo nods, rubbing at one eye. “Any chance the professor will take pity on me and curve my exam?”

“Monroe, right? Nah, that dude has a stick up his ass. He hated me especially because I never showed up to his class but still managed to ace all the tests.”

Piper groans. For fucks sake.

Another hour passes, and Piper feels a bit more confident than before Leo showed up. However, she’s no less exhausted. The chai tea could only do so much.

Piper yawns, flopping backwards onto her mattress.

“Stop that,” Leo complains around the yawn that fights its way out of his mouth.

Piper closes her eyes. “Five minutes.”

He hums, leaning back into her desk chair. “Sounds good.”

-

It was more than five minutes.

Piper wakes up to her phone alarm blasting near her left ear. Shit. Her final.

She sits up, groggy and delirious, grabbing her phone and silencing her alarm. With the obnoxious jingle gone she can hear soft snores coming from the end of her bed. God, she forgot Leo was here.

The sleeping boy sits in her desk chair, undisturbed by the alarm, arms folded and head lolled onto his shoulder. It looks so uncomfortable, but Leo is sleeping like a baby. Piper has always admired his ability to pass out anywhere.

Piper climbs off of her bed and trudges over to him. “Leo, wake up, you’re gonna hurt your neck.”

She has to jostle the boy a few times until he finally stirs awake. He groans, stretching out his limbs. “Time is it?”

“My final’s in forty minutes.”

His eyes widen upon realization they slept through the night. “Oh shit.”

“I have to get ready. You can sleep in my bed, if you want.”

“No, here, I’ll pack your bag to save time.”

Piper smiles at him gratefully, telling him she appreciates it. She grabs her toiletries caddy and all but runs to the bathroom to rush through her morning routine.

When she returns to her dorm, she notices that her desk is far neater than it was ten minutes ago, the mess of notes, flashcards, and pens gone. Her backpack sits in the chair, packed and zipped up. Her water bottle’s been filled as well, tucked into the side pocket. Leo is laying in her bed as if it's his own, scrolling through his phone. He grins at her and gives her a thumbs up.

Piper could literally kiss him. “Leo, you’re an angel. Heaven-sent.”

Leo snorts. “Could you tell that to my distant _tías_? They’re convinced I’m the devil reincarnated.”

“Fuck them,” Piper comments, pulling off her t-shirt.

Leo makes a surprised noise and goes to cover his eyes. “Jeez, Pipes. A little warning would be nice.”

“I’m wearing a bra.”

“But like—still!”

“Have you never seen boobs before?”

“That doesn’t mean I wanna see _yours_.”

“A tit is a tit.”

Piper throws on the first hoodie and pair of sweats she can find to save time, but also so Leo will stop being a whiney baby. As if he hasn’t seen her in a bikini.

She has about twenty minutes to get to her final. She slips her tennis shoes on and doesn’t even bother lacing them—just prays she won’t trip and fall down the stairwell.

Then again, if that happened she wouldn’t have to go to her final. The thought is. . .tempting. She doesn’t have time to think about it though. If it happens as she’s racing down the stairs, it happens.

She puts on her bag and throws her lanyard around her neck. “I am off now. Like sheep to slaughter.”

Leo rolls his eyes, tapping on his phone. “How are you this dramatic at nine in the morning?” He sits up. “Hey, I just ordered you another chai tea.”

Piper stops in her tracks. “What?”

“Yeah. By the time you get to the coffee shop it should be ready. Just grab it and go. You definitely need the caffeine, because if you feel anything like I do,” He winces, “ _God_. I feel like death. And my neck is killing me. Definitely don’t recommend sleeping at your desk—Piper, what the fuck, are you crying?”

Piper nods, wiping at the tears spilling down her face. “Y-yeah.”

Leo stares at her in shock, throwing the comforter off of him. “Piper. Piper, listen, you _cannot_ freak out right now. You still have to walk all the way to the testing center.”

Piper laughs wetly. “No!” she says. “I’m not freaking out. I’m crying because you’re literally the best best friend I could ever ask for.”

Leo clutches at his chest and breathes a sigh of relief. His face softens from the panicked look he had on before. “Jesus, you over-emotional loser. You can think about how grateful you are for me putting up with your ass while you’re _taking your final_.”

Piper stands there, unmoving, grinning at her best friend like an idiot.

“I love you.”

“ _Piper_.”

“Say it back and I’ll leave.”

“For fucks sake. I love you. Please run. Holy shit.”

Before he can protest, Piper runs over and smacks a kiss on top of Leo’s head, dodging the pillow he swings at her and promptly leaves her dorm room.

-

valdizzle 12:04 p.m.

**_are you out yet?_ **

piper 12:04 p.m.

**_yeah_ **

valdizzle 12:04 p.m.

**_how’d it go??_ **

**_talk to me pipes_ **

**_don’t make me video call you_ **

piper 12:06 p.m.

**_sry i was in an elevator_ **

**_would you believe me if i said i completely blacked out_ **

valdizzle: 12:06 p.m.

**_…_ **

**_what?_ **

piper: 12:07 p.m.

**_i blacked out_ **

**_don’t remember a single detail_ **

valdizzle: 12:07 p.m.

**_…_ **

**_you know what? valid_ **

**_at least you didn’t have a meltdown_ **

piper 12:08 p.m.

**_:)_ **

**_my finals are finally over_ **

**_can we go over to yours and take a nap to celebrate_ **

valdizzle 12:08 p.m.

**_i like your thinking, mclean_ **

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on tumblr @blackgwenstacy


End file.
